"It differs from absenteeism in that the worker is officially on the job. La perruque may be as simple a matter as a secretary's writing a love letter on 'company time' or as complex as a cabinetmaker's 'borrowing' a lathe to make a piece of furniture for his living room...[it is a use of time that is] free, creative, and precisely not directed toward profit." (25)
What would Margaret Morse or David Golumbia have to say about the way la perruque exists in the context of today's densely overlapping social media forms? Is there any time that isn't 'company time,' any place truly separable from the space of work and consumption?
It is quite intriguing that de Certeau would use the term "la perruque", which means "the wig". Does he explain why borrow the notion of "ersatz/appropriable hair"?
ReplyDeleteI suppose the utilization of "the wig" into an expression that already transforms its most immediate meaning pre-dates de Certeau. The Collins Robert says "faire de la peruque" ("to wig", or "to make a wig") is to "pilfer office equipment for personal use. And "faire des peruques" means "to work on the side (during office hours". Is there a completely sexist root to this (as in "to wig" = "to act like a woman" = "to do something other than legitimate work"?
ReplyDeleteyeah, that's a bit of mystery, and a quick scan of the web yields no answers. in english, we use the term "wig out" to express a moment of temporary madness (not unlike the kid having his fit over losing his WoW account)... same root somehow?
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